Coyotes use complete effort against the Flames

Before the Coyotes added three goals in the third period of Monday’s 4-0 win over the Calgary Flames, it looked like the Coyotes would use their defensive system to sit on a one-goal game.

That wouldn’t have been unusual. The Coyotes are used to pulling out wins by a one-goal margin. Obviously that type of game lends itself to the team’s style, but they also haven’t always had the offensive power to bury a team.

They did against the Flames, and that’s a positive heading into this week of practice.

“If you’re talking about being able to score a little bit and defend well, that’s the happy balance we’re looking for,” Tippett said. “But you’ve got to keep it in perspective. The last two games we’ve had an advantage both games with a team that played the night before. Those are advantages that happen. They happen in the schedule. Sometimes they get the advantage; sometimes we don’t. When we do, I like to see us take care of business when we do.”

But the defensive performance — all over the ice — would probably have been tough for even a rested team to beat. The Coyotes seemed to close off the open areas of ice that the Flames could exploit and when shots did reach goalie Mike Smith, players were there to clear the puck and bodies out.

“Our forecheck, it seemed like the second guy was right behind the pile when the puck stopped,” Smith said. “Forwards did a good job up front. ‘D’ were active, blocking shots like usual but up in the rush.”

Perhaps more importantly, this effort was pretty constant throughout the game and that hasn’t always been the case for the Coyotes this season.

“We played 60 minutes, and we’ve lacked that so far this year I think,” Smith said. “We’ve played well in parts in games and games we’ve won we weren’t happy with the way we started or finished the game. It was nice to put a whole 60 minutes together. All four lines played well and contributed. Even our fourth line, I thought, played some pretty good minutes, got the puck in deep and worked their ‘D’ down low. Credit to everyone in the room. We definitely deserved this one.”

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